Is this safe?

[Puna]

Some steam reviews say that this archive is unsafe

[Brevan]

I think I've had it installed for about a year, no problems yet. Did the reviewers give any evidence? Although these games are all Flash games, they don't seem to be running in a web browser, so I'm not sure where bad guys would access to the game's resources while it's running.

[Puna]

Originally posted by Brevan:

I think I've had it installed for about a year, no problems yet. Did the reviewers give any evidence? Although these games are all Flash games, they don't seem to be running in a web browser, so I'm not sure where bad guys would access to the game's resources while it's running.

This is the review:

Let me start off by saying it looks like this works. All the games I tried were playable with very little loss in functionality.

That being said, this archive is horribly implemented. When Flash Player first died, this entire archive simply stopped working as it depended on having Flash Player installed on your system. Ninja Kiwi's response to this was to download and install Flash Player before allowing users to play, the same Flash Player that Adobe currently won't even provide downloads for over security concerns. Wait, if Adobe isn't providing the download, then how is Flash Player installed? The answer is that this app will go to some random website online (Techspot last i checked), download and run an untrusted installer with admin privileges on your computer before permitting you to play games. On top of everything, this entire archive is an Electron App, which is basically an entire Chrome installation just to play these few flash games.

All of these problems could have been solved with even a little foresight when beginning to create this archive, such as making this archive an Adobe AIR app, which would remove the need of flash player as it already is one, be more secure as AIR is still supported even past the death of Flash, and it would be much lighter than an entire Chrome installation.

Basically, this works but horrible design decisions prevent me from recommending this. I would honestly say just download all the SWFs into a folder and load them in the Flash Player Projector.

[ImmortalSausages]

Originally posted by puna356:

Originally posted by Brevan:

I think I've had it installed for about a year, no problems yet. Did the reviewers give any evidence? Although these games are all Flash games, they don't seem to be running in a web browser, so I'm not sure where bad guys would access to the game's resources while it's running.

This is the review:

Let me start off by saying it looks like this works. All the games I tried were playable with very little loss in functionality.

That being said, this archive is horribly implemented. When Flash Player first died, this entire archive simply stopped working as it depended on having Flash Player installed on your system. Ninja Kiwi's response to this was to download and install Flash Player before allowing users to play, the same Flash Player that Adobe currently won't even provide downloads for over security concerns. Wait, if Adobe isn't providing the download, then how is Flash Player installed? The answer is that this app will go to some random website online (Techspot last i checked), download and run an untrusted installer with admin privileges on your computer before permitting you to play games. On top of everything, this entire archive is an Electron App, which is basically an entire Chrome installation just to play these few flash games.

All of these problems could have been solved with even a little foresight when beginning to create this archive, such as making this archive an Adobe AIR app, which would remove the need of flash player as it already is one, be more secure as AIR is still supported even past the death of Flash, and it would be much lighter than an entire Chrome installation.

Basically, this works but horrible design decisions prevent me from recommending this. I would honestly say just download all the SWFs into a folder and load them in the Flash Player Projector.

Yeah, the thing where the archive just didnt work when flash died was pretty stupid, but I havent seen any evidence for this untrusted installer with admin privileges on your computer. Not to mention the guy who made that review has a vac ban. Not that this makes their claims immediately untrustworthy, but just take it with a grain of salt. Ive also had this installed for quite a while now, no issues.

[N4P41M]

I've had no problems so far. Seems legit. I think adobe cited security concerns as one of their reasons for discontinuing flash. But, since you're playing a locally installed game instead of one hosted on a website, I wouldn't be worried about your data getting out there.

[adumbidiot]

lol thats my review. The archive should be fine as long as you trust Techspot for the flash download and ninja kiwi to provide non-malicous SWFs as the archive is online only and requires an internet connection. That requiring admin to install thing is pretty easy to confirm, just download the archive and run, it will force the Techspot download and require you to give admin approval.

TLDR: If you trust https://www.techspot.com/ to provide non-malicious downloads and ninja kiwi to provide non-malicious SWFs, you will probably be fine using this.

[Puna]

Originally posted by adumbidiot:

lol thats my review. The archive should be fine as long as you trust Techspot for the flash download and ninja kiwi to provide non-malicous SWFs as the archive is online only and requires an internet connection. That requiring admin to install thing is pretty easy to confirm, just download the archive and run, it will force the Techspot download and require you to give admin approval.

TLDR: If you trust https://www.techspot.com/ to provide non-malicious downloads and ninja kiwi to provide non-malicious SWFs, you will probably be fine using this.

I saw you mention another safe way to play the game. what's that?

[adumbidiot]

Flash Projector. Its not nearly as nice of an experience and doesn't work that great with online games, but I personally think its better that relying on the archive. I talk a bit about it in the comments of that review, I don't want to re-type all that out lol.

[Puna]

Originally posted by adumbidiot:

Flash Projector. Its not nearly as nice of an experience and doesn't work that great with online games, but I personally think its better that relying on the archive. I talk a bit about it in the comments of that review, I don't want to re-type all that out lol.

What would you suggest? I really want to play the game but I don't want to get any viruses on my pc

[adumbidiot]

I don't think the Techspot download is a virus right now, but its not like I can confirm that since it might not have activated yet or the download might become a virus in the future. However, I ran that installer to properly write that review and my computer seems functional.

Honestly, there aren't really any good options now that Adobe killed Flash. Most solutions will either be incomplete or rely on the user to expose their computer to viruses via untrusted downloads. If you can find a flash player installer, the archive looks like it supports using custom installers, but you would have to trust whoever you got it from.

I honestly would take the chance with catching a virus if I really wanted to play a game since I played these a bunch as a kid lol. If you wanted to safer solution that might break some games, I would use the Flash Projector.

Keep in mind though that this archive is online-only. When Ninja Kiwi pulls the plug on their servers, their archive will go down too. The Flash Projector option is more permanent, as the game files are always on your computer. Ninja Kiwi seems to hate this though and will throw in checks to prevent games from working when they get downloaded, so some games are literally only playable though the archive if they aren't modified to work everywhere. Hope that helps a bit.

[Puna]

Originally posted by adumbidiot:

I don't think the Techspot download is a virus right now, but its not like I can confirm that since it might not have activated yet or the download might become a virus in the future. However, I ran that installer to properly write that review and my computer seems functional.

Honestly, there aren't really any good options now that Adobe killed Flash. Most solutions will either be incomplete or rely on the user to expose their computer to viruses via untrusted downloads. If you can find a flash player installer, the archive looks like it supports using custom installers, but you would have to trust whoever you got it from.

I honestly would take the chance with catching a virus if I really wanted to play a game since I played these a bunch as a kid lol. If you wanted to safer solution that might break some games, I would use the Flash Projector.

Keep in mind though that this archive is online-only. When Ninja Kiwi pulls the plug on their servers, their archive will go down too. The Flash Projector option is more permanent, as the game files are always on your computer. Ninja Kiwi seems to hate this though and will throw in checks to prevent games from working when they get downloaded, so some games are literally only playable though the archive if they aren't modified to work everywhere. Hope that helps a bit.

Thank you very much for the help. I wish the archive was implemented in a different way

[corruption_1462]

hey there,

The flash player provided and the archive itself seem fine and not malicious i haven't had weird stuff happen yet and my antivirus would of just consumed it by now if any of it was malicious.

The archive runs smooth for me and i am happy to be able to play the old games in their original glory.

[Fentanyl Enjoyer]

if it was unsafe it wouldn't be on steam, cmon now.

[adumbidiot]

There have been literal cryptominers put on Steam in the past. All it takes is $100 since greenlight died.

[falcano396]

no

[Jkmckay21]

ok